Joss Whedon has never been shy about putting his pals and former castmembers into his new projects (Dollhouse was nothing but former whedonites by the end.) so it makes sense that hot on the heels of the news that Joss Whedon will not only be writing and directing the big 2012 Avengers movie for and punching up the script for Captain America: The First Avengers, rumors would start flying that he’s going to add in more of his buddies to Marvel movies, specifically Captain Tightpants himself…Nathan Fillion.

Marvelous News has quoted an inside source that says Fillion will play former Ant-Man and wifebeater Hank Pym in the Avengers film:

“Nathan Fillion is pretty much locked to be Henry Pym, and should be announced before any other new additions to the cast (think around Comic Con)”

Now, of course this is nothing but a rumor, but I gotta say it sounds plausible. Few people can play a likeable jerk like Fillion (Captain Hammer certainly seems pretty pym-ish to me) and he certainly does have a lot of nerd cred going for him. I guess we’ll just have to wait till Comic Con to find out.